


Codes and Keys

by sympathy_for_hordak (sparrow0)



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Hacking, Implied/Referenced Torture, Memory Loss, Minor Character Death, Post Season 4, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22087636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrow0/pseuds/sympathy_for_hordak
Summary: The one where they hack an empire.This update: Bow helpfully explains ping.Tags will change as the story progresses.What's interesting about these machines isn't really the machine itself. There are lots of different kinds that work in different ways, but they're all the same in one way: they try to put people into groups.By checking whether someone has a piece of metal that's the right shape, this machine is really a way to tell whether people are who they say they are. It's an idea - about which people should be allowed to do something - brought to life in metal.-Thing Explainerby Randall Monroe, on locks
Relationships: Catra & Glimmer & Hordak, Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 46
Kudos: 55





	1. Prelude: Hordak

Entrapta has asked me to type up my recollection of her first attempt to teach me to pick locks. 

This retelling is not perfectly accurate, as the events within may as well have happened to another person, in another life. At that time, I did not understand the purpose of the exercise.

My new armor - the exoskeleton Entrapta created - had been completed. 

Before Entrapta appointed herself my lab partner, I had coded the entire portal mainframe on my own. 

In my defense, I was conditioned as a soldier, and I had not imagined that work would ever be read by eyes other than my own. Also, the Etherian Horde's extremely limited microchip fabrication meant that almost every update took at least an hour to compile. 

In her defense, Entrapta was far less critical than I deserved, and the machine could never have run without her. She insisted upon refactoring the entire system, as a team, without leaving a single line unreviewed. 

I think I learned more about code in the first relentless days of that process than I had in my previous decades on Etheria. 

We had just begun another compile cycle when she took one of the boxes of her belongings from Dryl out from beneath her desk. 

"Do you know how to pick a lock?" Entrapta asked, perched on her hair, holding up the set of picks she usually kept in her overalls. 

"I do not, nor do I see the relevance," I said, standing at her side. 

I don't recall exactly what she told me. Something about authority and knowledge, I think. I remember it scared me enough to growl at her. 

Entrapta smiled up at me, and I would have given her the Known Universe, in that moment. 

She asked me to let her teach me. 

Entrapta showed me a padlock of clear plastic with shining brass inside. She opened it with the key, showed me how the notches in the key aligned the pins in the lock, pressing them exactly far enough to align the key pins and allow the lock to turn and open. 

Then she set the key aside, locked it again, and picked it open, slowly. I watched her settle the tension wrench into the keyhole and then slide her pick in and slowly lift the pins just enough for them to catch on the shear line, and then she pressed a little harder on the tension wrench, and the lock twisted open. 

I had built security and authentication devices before and had received rudimentary instruction in their use. There was something about watching her defeat this physical one that felt like arcane magic - like she had let go of the lock and it had floated up out of her hand, like there was no power she could not seize. 

"Do you think you could try?" Entrapta asked, and I nodded, speechless. 

"I won't start you on a five-pin lock like this," she said, setting the clear one aside and grabbing a lock of opaque metal with a single mark scratched into it. "This is a practice lock, there's only one pin in here. Be careful, if you push too hard, the pin will misalign or break and you won't be able to open it. Too little force, though, and you won't be able to feel the pin move into place or keep it there." 

I took the lock and tools as cautiously as I might have handled unexploded ordnance. I could not have said why, then, if I had been asked. 

I placed the tension wrench in the keyhole, as Entrapta had, and then removed it. 

"Go ahead," she said. "You want to feel the pin move and keep it in place. Push the wrench down like you're trying to brush an eyelash off of someone else's cheek." 

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "I have no data on that experience," I admitted. 

"Kind of gently, but kind of firmly," she elaborated. "Here, I can demonstrate." 

Entrapta ran two fingers along the back of my hand. 

I returned the tension wrench to the keyhole, pressing down with one clawed finger. 

I tried to slide the pick in and hit the outside of the lock, not the keyhole. 

"Slower breaths," Entrapta suggested. "My dads always used to tell me 'Slow breaths, steady hands, one pin at a time.' There's only one pin in there; I've seen you do way harder stuff working on our portal machine." 

I hadn't noticed my respiratory rate until she pointed it out, which of course caused it to increase. I forced myself to breathe more slowly, and this time I got the pick in and began to feel for the pin. 

I could see nothing, of course, I could only feel the metal of the lock through the metal in my hands. There were a few moments of fumbling, as I moved the pin around, and then I felt it catch. I pushed the tension wrench and it opened. 

It felt as though some essential part of me had been torn in her hands. It felt as though I had been a lock, and she had slid in and opened me. It felt as though I was a length of brittle old wires and she had gathered me in a hair tendril and pulled and pulled until I snapped, coming apart in her hands. 

I showed Entrapta what I had done, my hands shaking. 

Entrapta applauded. "Well done! You got it! Two pins is harder, because you have to keep the first in place while you get the second. Wanna try?" she asked, offering me a very similar lock with two lines scored into it. 

I did try. I could not recapture the moment of single-minded calm with which I opened the first lock, though, and I abandoned the effort when the mainframe chimed, announcing the latest revision had compiled.

This is a later addition, having learned more about the exact aims of this project: do not fear for me. Entrapta triumphed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title is from Death Cab for Cutie's album _Codes and Keys_. 
> 
> Thank you to [livielightyear](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/livielightyear/pseuds/livielightyear) and [juliaset](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/juliaset) for betaing this chapter, and to everyone who listened to me babble on and on about this fic on Discord for ages. 
> 
> Some parts of this work are made up, dangerous, and/or illegal. Do your research, don't hack alone, and maintain plausible deniability. 
> 
> The eyelash tip is real, though.


	2. One: Catra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra would prefer not to.

I'm going to start this recording by saying I don't want to talk about any of it. I'm only going to do this once, and then everyone who has questions can listen to this and ask someone else. If there's swears in it or whatever you can fucking take it up with the unfortunate asshole who they make edit this shit.

Again, if I'm confusing or I mess up, I do not care, your problem, not mine. I, Catra, cannot be reached for comment. Okay. 

  
  


I was asked to explain what happened right after Glimmer, Hordak, and I wound up on Prime's ship, and how Prime said Etheria would be the "jewel of his Empire." 

Prime sent Glimmer off to get "suitable attire for her new status" and then it was just him and me and the blank-eyed clone guards. 

Prime said something like, "I have reviewed and contemplated my little brother's thoughts, child, and it is clear you have true potential. You are similar to that sorceress he employed, but far more capable. You triumphed over your competition among the supposed officers in that defect's mockery of the Horde."

He went on like that for a little while. I remember Prime said to me, "you had the skill to bring my defective little brother to his knees before you."

Prime told me, "You understand what must be done to create and keep an empire. You understand how to use others' weaknesses and have never hesitated to do so. You risked your world out of loyalty to yourself and to me. Even in fantasy, you have always known you are not meant to rule." 

...fucking hate this. I mean Prime was right, but it sucked, and I'm not talking about it again. Anyway. 

He gently took my hands in his own. 

Prime went, "I grant you the rank of Disciple. I give you my little brother, and the Etherian queen you've defended. Form them into your tools, and I may grant you Etheria. Permit the slightest non-compliance, and I'll reassign you and your charges."

I bowed over his hands. "Yes, Horde Prime." 

"Oh, child, you must call me your Emperor," he corrected, smiling. 

"Of course, my Emperor," I said. "It won't happen again." 

  
  


You know what? Fuck this. I'm gonna stop here for a minute. 

What happened with Prime was super creepy and it makes my fucking fur stand up. I hate it so much. I told them I'd make an accurate recording, so I've repeated what Prime actually said as far as I remember. I don't even feel that gross about how he saw me, I mean, that all just made sense, but how he saw Hordak - ugh. I hated it then and I hate it now. 

Yeah, okay, fuck it, I'll admit it before the archivists and the ages and everyone, just this once: I felt bad for Hordak. Whatever, you should tell him this is a boring recording he shouldn't bother listening to. It sucks, I'm fucking terrible at telling stories, major waste of goddamn time, tell your friends. 

I'm not Adora. I'm not like that, okay, I never cared about what was best for Etheria and I never believed everything I heard. So it's not about the propaganda, I don't think Hordak is the rightful ruler of fuck-all and a lot of his ideas were garbage.

Hordak didn't like me, he was a terrible person, and he tried to kill me more than once: but of us, I had the better commanding officer. Compared to what Prime did to him, what Hordak did to me was - fine. Decent, even.

Hordak was the okayest he could have been, in the circumstances. 

Ugh. I got distracted. Gonna try again. 

  
  


Anyway, back on the ship, Prime sent me to resupply and I got new Horde gear, which was mostly fancier versions of my old Horde gear, white and silver instead of red and black. Horde Prime's Horde didn't do badges, they did key cards with face and rank and designation on them. 

My designation was "Catra," but all the clones had hex numbers like Eight Bravo Four Five Echo Two, or whatever. You know, hexadecimal, the number system that most of the universe uses. It turns out the decimal system is another weird thing the First Ones did to our planet. 

  
  


From resupply, one of the clones led me to my new quarters, a group of four rooms. The first was a space with a pair of couches and a big video screen, like a fancy, miniature lounge. The other three rooms were a bathroom, a kind of weird locker room or storage area or something, and a bedroom bigger and more princess-y than the one I'd had as a Force Captain, with a single enormous bed. 

I perched on the edge of one couch, where I would have the best view of the doorway to the exterior hall, and tried to review the briefings I had received about my new status. Mostly, though, I was thinking about what Prime had said, and what Double Trouble had said, and the extent to which everything was really incredibly shitty, especially me. 

  
  


A few minutes later, the exterior door opened and Glimmer was pushed inside, wearing a short white dress, white leggings, and a silvery belt and collar. I don't think she noticed me, sinking to her knees, arms wrapped around herself. 

The data pad in my hands chimed. I had a new message, reading: 

_ Your Queen has been delivered. We didn't want to risk weakening her functionality by directly touching her mind, so she's been sedated and fitted with a shock collar keyed to respond to those who outrank her. Here are the codes to activate it...  _

I hissed and dropped the pad. 

"Hey, Sparkles," I said, trying to sound as confident as normal. 

She twitched a little bit, but was silent. 

"Hey," I tried again. "Hey, Sparkles, get over here."

She stared up at me, lifting her chin. "Do it already." 

I scrambled to her and grabbed her by the front of the dress, dragging her to her feet. 

"Listen, Glimmer, you can fight me and let Prime reassign you, or you can work with me. I know I'm a nightmare, but I'm the closest thing to an ally you can hope to find in this place." 

She blinked, eyes not quite focusing. "Okay," she said. "Okay, Catra. Cat-Catra. Catra-cat." 

I growled and dragged her onto the couch. She tipped to one side, putting her head in my lap and her arms around me. 

"Catra!" she repeated, warmly. "We're friends now." 

"Yes, Sparkles," I said, pushing her upright and grabbing the pad. 

She cuddled up against my side. "What's that?" she asked. 

"A data pad, issued to me. Apparently I've got to learn a lot of junk as part of my training in this Horde." 

"Oh. Can I keep doing this?" Glimmer asked, petting my arm. "You're very soft." 

"Fine." 

  
  


Hang on, I just remembered, Entrapta wanted me to start this by telling you about the lock thing, which I totally didn't do. Fight me, or don't, whatever, send your fucking terrifying "lab partner" to fight me, he's earned it. Anyway. 

This was a long while before the ship, before Hordak's portal, after Entrapta started working on the Black Garnet. I think it might have been before the battle of Bright Moon, but I don't know. 

I went in Entrapta's lab. She was complaining about Horde software that I'm pretty sure Hordak wrote. I mean, I think she was trying to be nice. I remember her calling it "idiosyncratic" and "extremely unpolished." 

I told her, "Okay, whatever, I didn't come here to listen to you babble about Hordak. When we first captured you, you did something to the shackles to unlock them." 

"Yeah," Entrapta said. "They weren't that interesting, as locks go, but they were right there and I was excited." 

I ordered her to teach me that. 

She was like, "Do you not have lockpicking in the Horde?" 

So I said, "If we did, I wouldn't be asking you about it, would I?" 

She was all, "That's so sad! It's such fun. Of course I'll teach you!" 

I didn't tell anybody else, and I never got great at it, but I mean. We're the Horde. It never hurts to have one more skill up your sleeve, right? 

...Or we were the Horde, I guess. 

  
  


[A statement from the editing team: 

We requested this recording from Catra through a series of intermediaries. Some details were lost in transmission, including the membership and mission of this group. 

Nobody is to fight or challenge Catra on any element of this piece, least of all her descriptions of Hordak, which Hordak has personally endorsed. 

Catra has authorized the release of this transcript in this format, with this postscript.] 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We know from one delightful moment in "Flowers for She-ra" that the Horde uses a spelling alphabet including "Five-Echo-Niner." [Here](https://hordesafetypin.tumblr.com/post/189815187977/more-requested-by-sympathy-for-hordak) is a gifset of the moment I'm talking about. 
> 
> My love for the [NATO Phonetic Alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_phonetic_alphabet) is sincere, pure, and enduring. If you ever find yourself trying to transmit email addresses, serial numbers, or other specialized terminology over the phone and across the world, I cannot recommend it highly enough. 
> 
> [Hexadecimal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecimal) is another computer nerd thing, mostly used in real life for [IPv6 addresses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6) and [encryption keys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-key_cryptography).
> 
> Thank you to [livielightyear](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/livielightyear/pseuds/livielightyear) and [juliaset](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/juliaset) for betaing this chapter.


	3. Two: Entrapta

Hi! I'm Entrapta! This is my first section of the story! 

I've assembled my sections of this story from logs and notes I gathered at the time, with help from my friends. Any flaws in them are entirely my own. 

  
  


When we went through the portal out of Despondos, I was fascinated. There were so many stars, so far and so bright! Later data indicate I only stood there for a few moments, but it felt like an eternity, torn between wanting to study the stars - countless other worlds! - and monitoring Swift Wind and debating joining the battle in the Fright Zone. 

Given everything that happened later, I almost wish I'd been close enough to go through Prime's portal, but not really. If I had gone with them, we couldn't have accomplished nearly as much, and I know that. 

  
  


It was Swift Wind who shouted, "What's that?" when Prime's green portal flashed at the edge of the Fright Zone. 

When I looked back from the portal, Swift Wind seemed to have fully recovered from whatever made him collapse when the Heart began to activate. 

"We need to get there as fast as we can. Please, I need to know if anyone saw what happened," I told him, and he let me climb on. 

  
  


We met Bow as he was walking away from the ruin of the Black Garnet chamber, alone.

"What happened?" I asked, sliding down off of Swift Wind. 

"She's gone," Bow said. "Hordak nearly killed Glimmer and then he took her through a portal. I couldn't stop him." 

"I'm almost certain that wasn't Hordak alone, Bow," I said. "Did it look like he had a bunch of machinery that he used? Was he working with a - with someone else?" 

Bow shook his head.

"Then it wasn't activated from our side. Prime must have gotten his signal," I said, looking up at the ships orbiting Etheria. "I need to get to the Fright Zone and gather more data." 

"Why, so you can help Hordak and his accomplices hurt Glimmer and conquer Etheria?" Bow demanded. 

"No," I said. "They probably didn't take her on purpose, and you're my friend. I know more about portals and Prime than anybody else on Etheria. I can help you get her back, but I need to know more." 

"Who is Prime?" Bow asked. 

"Hordak told me he's a clone of Horde Prime, the Emperor of the Known Universe. This is part of Prime's fleet," I explained, gesturing skyward. "Hordak's not in control anymore, and he might be in trouble." 

Bow blinked. "What, you want to work with us to help the warlord we're trying to defeat?" 

"I guess so. I don't know if Hordak is my friend now, if he ever was, or if he's alive." I looked at Bow. "You never gave up on me. I'm not giving up on Hordak." 

"Okay." Bow sighed. "If you and Hordak team up to defeat the Princess Alliance, please warn me first. If you decide you do want to help me save Glimmer, meet me and the princesses at the rendezvous point outside the Fright Zone. Swift Wind, get Entrapta to the Black Garnet Chamber and then turn around." 

Swift Wind agreed, and I climbed back on. 

  
  


The Fright Zone was badly damaged. Someone had blasted through it with an extraordinarily powerful weapon. It didn't seem like the princesses' style. I wanted to see the weapon - I said in my logs that I thought it must have been well-designed. 

The Fright Zone was also nearly empty. I didn't see or hear anyone between the Black Garnet Chamber and the Sanctum. I dropped out of a hole that had been torn in a wide duct, and Imp, Hordak's winged little spy, launched himself into my arms, screeching. 

"Hey, little buddy!" I chirped. "It's okay, I'm here." 

Imp replayed Double Trouble's voice. "No one is welcome in Hordak's super-secret sanctum. Not since you let that princess in."

He played back Hordak's groan, then continued in Double Trouble's voice. "I was looking forward to meeting this Entrapta character before I left Bright Moon. But of course, as you know, she wasn't there." 

Imp spoke in Hordak's voice, quiet and lost. "What did you say?" 

Imp returned to Double Trouble's voice. "I figured out the truth. You had Catra send Entrapta to Beast Island, so She-ra would run off to rescue her. I have to applaud your work, you really had me going. So scorned by Entrapta's betrayal. Even now you look like you had no idea. I mean, I did consider the alternative, that Catra's been lying to you this whole time. That she made you think she was your partner in crime, when really she is the one who betrayed you. But between you and me, there's no way she's that good an actor. Well, I'll leave you to it." 

"Catra's been lying! This whole time!" he repeated. 

"Oh, I see," I said. "Was this conversation very recent?" 

"Very recent," he echoed in my voice. 

"I'm sorry, I wish I had asked Hordak more about how you worked. You have a limited buffer of sounds you can repeat, don't you?" 

"Limited buffer," Imp repeated, and screeched again, frustrated. 

"We've been taken out of Despondos. Prime's fleet is in orbit around this world. Bow said he saw Hordak and Glimmer leave the Fright Zone through a portal. Do you know what happened?"

"Prime's portal. Hordak taken. Prime's Hordak," Imp echoed, frowning. 

"Are you certain about the portal?" I asked. 

"Certain. Prime's portal what happened," Imp replayed, cutting up bits of my own statements over the previous few seconds. 

"Are you concerned about Hordak having left you behind? Do you want to go to Prime, too?" I asked. 

Imp snarled. 

"Am I wrong?" I asked. 

"Wrong!" Imp echoed. "Prime wrong. Hordak wrong about Prime." 

"Hm. Imp, when you say 'wrong,' do you mean bad, not correct, or a different thing?" 

"Prime bad wrong to Hordak. Prime bad, bad wrong. Hordak say Prime correct. Imp know Hordak not correct. Imp know what happened. Hordak not bad to Imp." 

I pet his hair. "Thank you for telling me. I'm going to try to get Hordak back and stop Prime. Will you come with me?" 

"Imp will come with you," he declared, climbing onto my shoulder and clinging to my hair. "Thank you." 

I gave Imp the recorder I used on Beast Island, with the understanding that I'd get him one of his own as soon as possible. 

We began to move through the vents of the Fright Zone, looking for anyone who might need assistance or have information. 

  
  


I thought I saw Hordak standing in a hallway, and scrambled out of the vent. 

I stared up at what looked like Hordak, and realized the crystal on the collar of this imposter's armor had random lines on it, not an actual First Ones' glyph. 

I picked up Double Trouble, winding tendrils of hair around that familiar body, watching their red eyes widen. 

"Princess Entrapta," they said in Hordak's voice. "Unhand me at once!" 

"You're not him! Prime has him!" 

"Oh, Your Majesty, does my appearance displease you?" They sounded like him; they sounded absolutely gutted by my anger. I really wanted to reassure him and also hurl them through a wall. 

"No! Yes! Argh! Hordak was my - lab partner. You used him and Catra against each other, and now he's in danger. If you don't stop being him  _ right now  _ I'm going to  _ find out _ what happens if I start  _ ripping _ the exoskeleton I built him off of you." 

They grinned and winked at me. "Sounds like my kind of dance, but this isn't that sort of party." 

Double Trouble transformed into Bow. "There's plenty of people on Etheria who really missed you, Entrapta, who would jump at the chance to assist with your research. Why chase after some tyrant?" 

"It's not like that! If I want a skilled assistant I can send word to the Etherian Makers' Guild. I want Hordak back! In one piece!" 

They transformed into me, beaming. "Oh, you're even more fun than I imagined! So intense! So direct! I can help you get your lab partner back, for a price."

"Fine," I snapped, dropping them. "Come on." 

  
  


When I marched up to the others on the sand, they looked as though they'd seen a ghost, or a monster. 

"Entrapta," Perfuma asked carefully, "Why are there two of you?" 

I turned, realizing Double Trouble was still me. They transformed into their own shape. 

"Sorry," Double Trouble said. 

"She-Ra is gone," Adora said, numbly, leaning against Bow. "The Sword is broken." 

"Oh, wow," I said softly. "Adora, that's incredible. You stopped the Heart, saving this world and countless others. Do you have the stone from the hilt?" 

She shook her head. "I left it in the Crystal Castle. Why?" 

"It's your runestone. We may need it to defuse the Heart, and you may still be able to access its power."

"I'll go back to the castle with Adora to get it," Swift Wind offered. 

"We can meet up at Bright Moon. I'll tell King Micah what happened to Glimmer," Bow said. 

I shook my head. "Bow, you deciphered Mara's message from the Waste before I did. I need you in Dryl, as soon as possible. The Fright Zone is in ruins, and Bright Moon's roofs aren't designed for long-range telecommunications."

"What message have you found?" he asked. 

I shook my head again. "None yet. I know what Hordak hoped to send to Prime, and how. All these ships are talking to each other. They're using frequencies to send transmissions, which means Dryl's sensors and mainframes can be repurposed to hack the fleet." 

"Hack the fleet?" Adora echoed, dubious. 

I nodded. "You had Horde cadet technical training, you could help, too. I think it's our best option for helping Queen Glimmer - and Hordak, if he's in danger, as Imp believes." 

"Uh, speaking of danger, does anyone know what happened to Catra?" Scorpia asked. 

"Last I saw her, she was near Glimmer and Hordak. She might be with them," Double Trouble suggested. 

"If Prime has Catra - " Scorpia broke off, looking down. "She betrayed you, and I let it happen, and I'm sorry. But - please - " 

I lowered my mask, hiding my face. "Catra hoped Beast Island would destroy me, and threatened you when you asked her to help me. Now, you want me to rescue her?" 

"Entrapta," Scorpia said softly. "Please." 

"She lied to me about the princesses. She lied to Hordak about me," I said. 

"She lied to me," Imp echoed, in my voice, emerging from my hair. "Prime would destroy this world and countless others. Help rescue Hordak, Glimmer, and Catra. Hack the fleet."

I reached up to pet him, raising my mask. "Thank you, Imp, you're right. Let's focus on what matters." 

"We're going to save everyone," Adora insisted. "Every person, Rebellion or Horde, Etherian or not." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imp's initial speech is from "Destiny, Part 1" and the rest is from other people in whatever conversation he's having. 
> 
> "Hack the planet" has always been an anti-authoritarian statement. It's from [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers_\(film\)) goofy hacker movie.


	4. Three: Glimmer

This is Glimmer. 

I don't remember anything from when I left Prime's throne room until the door to Catra's chambers opened and a clone wearing nothing but shorts stumbled in, falling to his knees and pressing his palms and forehead to the white carpet. 

I had been half-asleep, curled up against Catra on the couch, but with one glimpse of his shivering body, I was wide-awake. 

Catra's data pad chimed. 

"Are you okay?" I demanded of the kneeling clone. "What happened?" 

"Silence, both of you," Catra ordered, reading whatever new message she'd gotten. 

I could hear his breaths become louder and more frightened at the harshness of her tone. 

Catra set the pad aside, looking at me. "Sparkles, you will stay put and observe silently until I say you can do anything else. Defect, go to the closet, find a blanket or sheet or something, cover yourself with it, and sit down on the other couch. Tell me when you're done." 

"Yessir," he said as he got up. The clone's green eyes were huge with fear, his hair snow-white, his ears low, his mouth blood-red. 

I gasped, recognizing Hordak, and Catra glared at me, her eyes not leaving my face. "Shut up, Sparkles." 

"It is done, sir," Hordak said, a light gray blanket wrapped around his shoulders. 

Catra perched on the coffee table, facing him. "Do you know who we are?" 

"Disciple Catra and Queen Glimmer, sir, I was briefed after conditioning," he said softly. 

"You don't recall seeing us before, do you?" she asked. 

"No sir, sorry sir."

"I am not disappointed," she said gently. "You spent the last few decades trying to conquer a world called Etheria, calling yourself Hordak. For the final year and a half of that campaign, I was your second-in-command. Is it possible that you'll recover your memories if I continue briefing you on what happened?" 

"No, sir, this is no primitive world's enchantment, it will not wear off." 

"Do you know that because you remember seeing the after-effects of having memories erased, in yourself or somebody else?" she asked. 

"No, not personally, but it was part of conditioning. They'd never lie to us," he said.

"Oh,  _ fuck _ ," she said, with feeling, and he flinched, his ears lowering. She amended, "It's whatever, it's not you I'm upset with. You've reminded me of someone else who is, uh, gone. Our last weeks on Etheria really sucked and I'm all over the place, Prime has made me your commanding officer and I can't even do that properly." 

"Prime did what?" I said. 

"Fuck," Catra said again, softer. "You were drugged, Sparkles. Prime assigned both of you to me. You're snuggly when you're high, but you didn't say or do anything important. Also, they put a shock collar on you and gave me the codes for it, so. Don't do anything we'll all regret, okay?" 

"Okay," I said. "This might be a stupid question, but when's the last time any of us ate, washed up, or slept?" 

Catra blinked. "Hell if I know. I couldn't say if it's supposed to be night or day, even, we're on a spaceship, in space." 

"May I assist, disciple?" Hordak asked. She shrugged, and he got up, holding the blanket around his shoulders, picking up her data pad, and tapping at it. "It's early evening, ship time, no clue about the time on Etheria. The Queen and I won't have duty cycles until you allocate them, and you don't have one until morning. This is the nutrient request form," he said, sinking to his knees and offering the pad to Catra with both hands. 

Catra took the pad, stared at it, rubbed her eyes, and stared some more. "I don't know what any of this means. The gray ration bars were pretty okay, but this doesn't mention colors. Can you...oh, right, you can't just tell them what Etherians can safely eat because you have no idea. Ugh." 

"Let me see," I said. I guessed at the required options and submitted the form. "H- uh. Do I have to call you defect?" I asked Hordak. 

He looked uncomfortable. "What else could you possibly call me? I do not require further reconditioning! I am perfectly aligned with my designation." 

"Sorry, it's an alien culture thing, don't worry about it," I lied. "You look cold, defect, can we get you actual clothes?" 

Catra sighed. "No. I'm not supposed to get stuff for either of you except as a reward. Whatever's in our weird, fancy storage room is whatever we've got." 

"Have you not seen a walk-in closet before?" I asked. "They're not that fancy." 

Catra's ear flicked in irritation. 

The door chimed, and Hordak answered it, accepting a box of rations. He silently handed bars to Catra and me, and took one for himself at Catra's command. 

It was okay, if bland. The rations didn't make anybody sick, and we seemed a little less drained after, which was all I wanted. 

"I have a task for you both," Catra said, finally, reluctant. "Sleep with me." 

I gaped at her. 

"Do you mean sexual intimacy, sir?" Hordak asked quietly, ears low. 

"Ugh. No." Catra buried her face in her hands. "I want at least one of you in that huge creepy bed until I'm not tired anymore. I never, ever slept alone until - until someone was lost and I was promoted to Force Captain in her place." 

"Yes, sir," Hordak said. "That is within my ability to provide, without question. If you wish it, I will not leave your side." 

Catra shrugged, ears back. "Sure, whatever. Come on." 

We followed Catra into the bedroom, where she peeled off her uniform and got under the blankets in the middle of the bed, in only her underclothes. 

Hordak joined Catra at her right side, and Catra was asleep almost as soon as she snuggled her back against his chest, her arms and legs curled up against her body. 

I stepped out of the dress, discovered that I was apparently wearing a bra and underwear of some hyper-comfortable, white alien fabric, and joined them on Catra's left. 

  
  


The next morning, after Catra left for training, Hordak sat on the floor beside me. "May I speak freely, and in secrecy, Your Majesty?" he asked. 

"Sure," I said. 

"Did I present our disciple, my former second-in-command, to our Emperor?" 

"You didn't," I said. "You didn't know she was there." 

"I should be disappointed," he said, calm. "I should despair, that I was incompetent enough to miss her presence or corrupt enough to try to conceal her." 

"What's corrupt about that?" I asked. 

"A good soldier of the Horde is loyal to our Emperor, to their commanding officer, to their squadmates, and to their reports, in that order. It is perverse to try to shield one's followers from one's leadership, an inversion of the natural order of things." 

"So, according to you, I ought to care about Prime, then Catra, then you, and then finally everyone who answers to me." 

"Precisely. You're a primitive alien species, is that how you were conditioned on your home planet?" 

"It isn't, no. We don't have much of a formal command structure; we mostly care about our families and our friends. Even in the version of the Horde you ran, people cared more about their squadmates than about you." 

"So I landed on an evil world and yielded to its evil, encouraging it in my supporters?" 

"Yeah, pretty much. You didn't tell almost any of your followers that Prime even existed." 

"Please, Your Majesty, our Emperor," he replied. 

"Ugh, why?" I asked. 

"I very much want you to be good, for all our sakes," Hordak said, looking up at me. "I know evil is a constant temptation and I implore you to hold out against it, Your Majesty." 

"Okay, I'm totally lost. What are good and evil even supposed to mean?" 

"To be good is to understand your place in the world and fit into it: to faithfully love our Emperor, to joyfully obey one's commanding officers, to peacefully command one's reports. To be evil is to love yourself above all others, to obey one's commanding officers resentfully, to wilfully grant one's reports more or less than their due." 

I blinked at him. "That's. Uh. That's a perspective. You know what? I'm curious. What evil stuff are you tempted to do, right now?" 

"Warn you about discipleship, interfering in our Emperor's judgement." 

"You said that uh, our Emperor saw into your mind. He could have wiped away the parts of you that want that stuff, but he didn't. Maybe he wants you to be a little bit evil?" 

"Maybe, Your Majesty. It's not as if you'd do anything about what I said, right? It wouldn't matter." 

"It wouldn't," I agreed. "This all sounds really minor, and besides. I'm a Queen, and a squadmate, and I'm telling you I want to know." 

"Very well. Disciples are exceedingly rare, as they are their world's toughest and most cunning warriors, taken alive, and convinced to willingly attempt to fully join the Horde. A successful disciple is claimed by our Emperor: mind, body, and spirit, and is nearly equal to one born into our brotherhood. Nearly every disciple is weaker than the weakest clone of our Emperor, and so success is not possible for them."

"Oh! Well, um, sort of good news, maybe? You used to be one of our Emperor's generals and Catra vanquished you in single combat." 

He stared up at me. "Did she malfunction? Did I malfunction?" 

"Uh, yeah. There was this...enemy magic that forced you to turn on each other. Catra extremely decisively won, and narrowly managed to snap out of it and not kill you," I invented. It wasn't a huge distortion of what had really happened, if you called what I ordered Double Trouble to do magic. 

Hordak grinned. "Thank you, Your Majesty," he said, voice soft with hope. 

  
  


You know, I keep getting told how scary it is that Prime's technology modified minds, how upsetting it is to hear that I can't remember a lot of what happened on that ship. But everybody's memory has missing stuff - I can't remember what happened while I was asleep, either. 

The absence of knowledge didn't make me feel like I'd been damaged, at first. 

The absence of activity did. 

During that first week, I had no obligations and no access to a data pad, no magic and no training. After months of running the Princess Alliance, the boredom and loneliness was intolerable. 

  
  


I woke up very early one morning, with Catra clinging to my arm. I remember watching them sleep, these sworn enemies of mine, and reimagining my relationship to the home I might never see again. 

I thought about the way Catra had said "I wouldn't do that if I were you," saving my mind, my life, or both, making it look casual, even selfish. 

I brought my fingers to my throat. When I was presented to Catra, I was alone, and I'd been fitted with a shock collar. Catra could have done nearly anything to me, and she had demanded cuddles. 

I stared at them again. I had a decent idea of what Hordak and Catra had done to each other - I had questioned Scorpia and Double Trouble. And yet, now, she slept peacefully with him at her back. 

I looked past Catra to Hordak. Hordak, who destroyed Salineas, who built the machinery that killed my mother, who killed my father. 

Hordak, for whom the use of his name was a gesture of kindness he had been broken too badly to accept. Hordak, who knelt and begged his creator for mercy and received none. Hordak, who was now big spoon to Catra's little spoon. 

Even in my wildest fantasies of triumph, of having him and his captains kneel and swear fealty, I never went this far. It was always my parents he knelt to, always the childish imaginings where my dad was secretly alive all along. Hordak was always grumpy, bitter, and defeated, always resigned to his humiliation before his forces. 

But I - I wanted him to apologize, to acknowledge his rule was never legitimate, to disband his armies and give the Black Garnet back to the Princesses of Scorpion Hall. I never dreamed of doing anything like this. 

I was shocked to realize I wanted to protect Hordak and Catra, that some part of me had decided these were my people as much as any of Bright Moon's subjects and the Princess Alliance had ever been. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The entire shape of this fic, but especially the parts on Prime's ship, would not have been possible without [The Attendant](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21668185/chapters/51673549), which is hilarious, brutally dark, and spectacular. 
> 
> There are medications that may interfere with one's ability to store and retain long-term memories. Unfortunately, there's no way to know if you're one of the unlucky ones who will experience that side-effect without trying it and seeing what happens. The drugs that I know have had this problem have been prescribed for insomnia, anxiety, and PTSD.


	5. Four: Bow

I'm Tech Master Bow of Bright Moon. Hi, everybody! 

I haven't made anything for such a wide audience before. If you're a senior maker, especially if you've done signals work, this is probably too much of a kids' story. If you're a young person, this might be too much of a dry technical lecture. I'm gonna try to be helpful for all of you, but it might not work. 

  
  


I'm not going to go into detail about the stuff from after I talked to Entrapta outside the Fright Zone and before I got to Dryl. Scorpia and I took a skiff to Bright Moon, to talk to Micah ourselves, and to get Emily. I'm just gonna say everybody did their best to be kind. 

Micah insisted on accompanying us to Dryl, on imprisoning Shadow Weaver, and on ordering Bright Moon's forces to defend the Moonstone, defend the Black Garnet, and send anyone who could be spared to Dryl to help with the anti-Horde effort. 

I didn't think we were going to need that many people. I was wrong. The reason why is going to take a little bit of explaining. 

  
  


This might be tedious if you've worked with frequencies and radios before, but I want to start at the very, very beginning. Well, at  _ my _ very beginning, I've always loved communications. Entrapta's very beginning is lifting pins and popping locks, as a precursor to moving through vents, popping shells, and extracting plaintext, but I'll let her tell that part. 

The first, simplest concept I want you to think about is speech. When you talk, or when you play back sound, you're sending a message into the air around you. 

This message can't be held, touched, or seen. It's not there permanently - when you stop talking, it goes away. It's got a limited range - if Adora whispers in my ear, and Glimmer's in the next room, Glimmer can't hear her. 

Not everything can transmit or receive this kind of message - if Adora whispered to my leg, I won't know what she said. 

All the things I just said about talking are true about  _ signals _ , in general. Oh, and while traditionally we use other A and B names, I'm going to talk about Adora and I messaging each other as a metaphor for messaging in general. 

  
  


The next idea I want to talk about, building on this "talking" metaphor, is stuff that isn't conversation, but makes speech harder to understand. If Adora were trying to whisper to me while I washed my hands, I might not be able to hear her because of the not-signal sounds, the  _ noise _ . 

One of the ways we determine if something is signal or noise is sending signals at it. If Adora says "hello, is anybody there?" and I say "hi, I'm here!" then she knows she's communicating with me. 

Questions and greetings are very basic kinds of  _ protocol _ , patterns about how to communicate. When people communicate, we tend to use pretty messy, informal protocols, because we can still usually figure out what we mean. Messages that machines send each other are much tidier and more predictable. 

We can send signals towards stuff to see if it exists. You know how your voice sounds a little bit different in a big, open space versus a small, enclosed one? The way that your speech echoes off stuff changes how you sound to yourself. There are some animals, including Etherian bats, that make lots of high-pitched noises to detect the objects around them. This is called echolocation. In ancient times, the First Ones built mechanical systems that worked in more-or-less the same way, called sonar.

  
  


Those high-pitched noises could be called beeps, chirps, or squeaks - but the First Ones thought of them as " _ pings _ ," and that's what they called their most ancient protocol for seeing if a machine was capable of responding. 

Back when Entrapta and Hordak worked on the portal together, she said she learned more from taking his tech apart than from his attempts to explain. There's a whole lot that Hordak didn't know, but ping was one of the protocols that Hordak confirmed was still in use all over the Known Universe. It's among the standards that are extremely well-established and haven't changed in centuries. 

My tracker pad used variations on ping for all kinds of stuff, including detecting the Sword of Protection. 

Entrapta and I already had some tech for sending and picking up far-off signals, but it had all been built and calibrated for Despondos, the empty dimension where Mara hid Etheria. It was a little bit like I had a lot of sensitive instruments set up to try to hear whispers from Adora on the opposite side of a library in the middle of the night, and then I tried to use them to find her at Princess Prom. 

  
  


Adapting to the incredibly loud, chaotic wider universe was a challenge. Where before, we'd had absolute silence on almost every frequency, we were now picking up all kinds of stuff, all over the place. Most of it wasn't important, but somebody still had to review the messages to find that out. 

Another analogy for you: reaching out to different addresses and frequencies can be a little bit like peeking through all the windows in a city, one at a time. Some of the people you encounter will totally ignore you, but others might see you as a potential intruder and yell at you. 

As a consequence of this project, the Princess Alliance's very first interactions with a bunch of different groups involved being mis-identified as Horde scum and menaced. We had a whole lot of carefully-worded apologies to issue, in response to some of the messages we received.

  
  


One last thing about this project of trying to access Prime's fleet: we were trying to find out if people we loved dearly were alive or dead. As its leaders, Entrapta, Adora, and I were not exactly role models for working responsibly and sustainably and taking plenty of breaks. 

Micah did an incredible job of coordinating everything, assigning work to people, briefing new arrivals, and keeping the whole thing organized. 

Scorpia and Imp established themselves as Micah's counterparts, kind of, in that Micah gave people data to review, and those two demanded that we step back from our work to take regular breaks. Imp's capacity for communication improved rapidly with the device Entrapta built for him. 

  
  


Entrapta worried everyone, I think, by the end. At first, she was intense, but relatively patient and focused. She got angrier and more exhausted and scattered as the days ground on, and it was increasingly difficult to persuade her to rest. 

Double Trouble, oddly, was able to pull her away from her work for lengthy, one-on-one "meetings" that were clearly part of some secret plan. Adora was sure the two of them planned to betray us and conquer the universe. 

At some point, Imp took a scouting party to the Fright Zone, and brought Entrapta a lot of Hordak's stuff. 

Seeing her roll out of vents in that bug-skull mask and enormous dark cape made a lot of people start wondering who, exactly, we'd agreed to help. 

  
  


When we finally reached the Imperial Horde Fleet, they sent us a video message immediately, beginning with a single clone of Horde Prime, speaking to the camera. 

"Greetings, trespassers," he began, "you are commanded to surrender in the name of our Emperor, Horde Prime the Eternal, who rules the Known Universe through peace and order." 

The video switched to an image of a dark-skinned, dark-eyed, white-haired woman in red armor, flanked by two beautiful men. The clone narrated, "If you are members of the Lightning Armada, the most impressive force the Horde has faced, know that this Her Majesty, Adorianya of Thunderfall, your Storm Queen, is ours." 

The image changed to the same woman, now with eyes as pale green as the clone's, wearing a white Horde uniform, smiling, and holding the men's severed heads in her outstretched hands. "The Storm Queen's conditioning is complete. So great is her love for Our Emperor that she has destroyed all her consorts at His request. Follow her, and yield to us."

The video went to an image of a person in full-body black armor, lying on the ground. "If you trespassers seek Lord Krayt, Master of Shadow, prophesied Chosen One, know that unlike the Storm Queen, he was too weak to join the Horde, and he has been unmade."

The image then changed to a man and woman, both with the pale green eyes and white uniform the Storm Queen had. "If you are from one of the many primitive backwaters that worship Eternians - your so-called 'First Ones' - know that the last of the Royal House of Grayskull, your King Adam and Queen Teela, were also found worthy of belonging to the Horde, and have joined Our Emperor in His Grace and His Mercy." 

The video returned to the clone. "To any lesser, weaker worlds: your greatest heroes cannot hope to stand against us. Seek mercy, seek peace, and seek Our Emperor's Glory." 

The video concluded. 

"I - I guess we know what Grayskull is now," Adora said numbly. 

"I was right about Prime, and now I know I'm right about Hordak," Imp said through his speech machine, frowning. 

"What?" I asked. 

"You saw their eyes," Imp said. "Prime didn't have full control of Hordak for decades." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Popping a shell" is an informal phrase for gaining the power to issue commands to a remote computer system. It comes from "popping" as a term for opening bottles and locks, and from [shell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_\(computing\)) as the term for command-line interfaces like [Plaintext](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_\(Unix_shell\)>bash</a>.) is the stuff that's meant to be encrypted. Don't worry if this feels a little abstract - we will get back to cryptography. 
> 
> [Signal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal) and [noise](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_\(signal_processing\)) are the real world building blocks of a whole lot of information transmission and electrical engineering stuff. 
> 
> The "other A and B names" Bow references are [Alice and Bob](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_and_Bob). 
> 
> [Echolocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_echolocation) and [sonar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonar) are basically the same thing, and they're where the name of the utility [ping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_\(networking_utility\)) comes from. If you're reading this on a device with a screen, you can almost certainly use that device to try to ping other devices, and your device uses ping or something like it to determine if it has a working network connection. 
> 
> Adorianya is an original character, influenced by the Sturmvoraus royal family from _Girl Genius_. 
> 
> Adam and Teela are He-Man and his love interest, respectively, in most versions of their canon, which I learned from wikis because I haven't seen any of it. 
> 
> I regret that this update took so long, my life outside fandom has recently been chaotic and I haven't had much time to edit or publish.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [the crypto castle](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21865588) by [sympathy_for_hordak (sparrow0)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparrow0/pseuds/sympathy_for_hordak)




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